This response involved placing more than 500 academic and professional service volunteers in the field; developing the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform to help health workers develop culturally sensitive interventions to change behaviour in local communities and stop the spread of the virus; and providing education in the form of a three-week free online course. For this coordinated response, we were the judges’ unanimous choice for University of the Year 2016.

Professor Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “We are delighted to be named University of the Year 2016. When the Ebola epidemic got out of control it was our duty to mobilise to help stop this outbreak. Thank you to our committed community of staff, students and alumni for their outstanding work and ongoing dedication to meeting urgent challenges in public and global health.”

The winners of the awards were announced on Thursday 24 November at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, London.

Read more about the School’s response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the THE Awards here.